From video....GOP candidates wrong about ISIS ? Its all about oil and gas....
This ass is full of shit, Mr. Reality Check is the one that got it wrong..... and the GOP candidates have history correct....The rebellion and birth of ISIS had nothing to do with oil and gas....
2009 Pipeline deal fails
2011 rebellion against Assad begins...
2012 Assad signs pipeline deal with Iran...some rebels deflect to ISIS and Al-Nusra
2013 US starts assisting rebels against Assad....
Rebellion against Assad began in 2011 and this clown wants you to believe the rebels were concerned about oil and gas ?
If rebels were deflecting to ISIS and Al-Nursa in 2012, then its obvious ISIS existed before 2012....
Oil and gas might have been the reason the US got into the mess but it surely was not the reason for the rebellion against Assad...
A LITTLE HISTORY
The "Damascus Spring", as it became known, was short-lived.
By early 2001, the intellectuals' meetings began to be closed down or refused licences and several leading opposition figures were arrested. Limits on the freedom of the press were also soon put back in place.
For the rest of the decade, emergency rule remained in effect. The many security agencies continued to detain people without arrest warrants and held them incommunicado for lengthy periods, while Islamists and Kurdish activists were frequently sentenced to long prison terms. Any economic liberalisation benefitted the elite and its allies, rather than creating opportunities for all.
Many analysts believe that reform under Mr Assad has been inhibited by the "old guard", members of the leadership loyal to his late father.
His family is also said to have played a role in encouraging him to suppress dissent, including his brother Maher, the head of the Republican Guard, and his first cousin, Rami Makhlouf, arguably the most powerful economic figure in Syria.
In 2007, Mr Assad won another referendum with 97% of the vote, extending his term for another seven years.
Hardline diplomacy
In foreign policy, Bashar al-Assad continued his father's hardline policy towards Israel. He repeatedly said that there would be no peace unless occupied land was returned "in full", and continued to support militant groups opposed to Israel.
His vocal opposition to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, and the Syrian authorities' tacit support of Iraqi insurgent groups, also prompted anger in Washington, but it was popular in Syria and in the wider region.
Syria's already tense ties with the US soured in the wake of the February 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri.
The finger of suspicion was immediately pointed at President Assad, his inner circle and the Syrian security services, which dominated Lebanon. Despite their denials of involvement, international outrage at the killing forced Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon that April, ending a 29-year military presence.
'External conspiracy'
When anti-government protests erupted in the southern city of Deraa in mid-March 2011, President Assad initially appeared to be unsure how to respond, but it was not long before only force was used to combat them.
When protests against Assads government began in March 2011 he gave orders to crush the dissent, rather than tolerate it, and he refused to meet protesters' demands.
The brutal crackdown triggered an armed conflict that the UN says has so far left more than 250,000 people dead
http://www.bbc.com/news/10338256
The Syrian Civil War began in the early spring of 2011 within the context of Arab Spring protests, with protests against President Bashar al-Assad's government, whose forces responded with crackdowns. The conflict gradually morphed from mass protests to an armed rebellion after months of military sieges. A United Nations report released in December 2012 stated that the conflict had "become overtly sectarian in nature", between mostly Alawite government forces, militias and other Shia groups[85] fighting primarily against Sunni-dominated rebel group.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Civil_War
